MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
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An inseparable bond
Politics is not only compatible with poetry but actually an integral part of it. But it is a proposition shunned by much of the poetry establishment today, argues ALAN MORRISON
PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king
TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians
The missing sister, the vengeful WAG, cruise ship claustrophobia, and reanimated Avengers
Three great releases of lost concerts by Duke Ellington Orchestra, John Taylor & Stan Sulzman, and Joe Henderson
To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
POETRY, and all literature, is essentially a communal phenomenon. Its prime purpose is to communicate as widely as possible and share ideas and experiences, notions unfashionable in a capitalistic and postmodernist poetry “mainstream.”
That mainstream is often characterised by one-upmanship and individualistic careerism although also, ironically, a striking uniformity of style.
It is sponsored by what are effectively poetry corporations or monopolies — the hedge-funded Poetry Book Society, the all-encompassing Poetry Society, the “top” metropolitan imprints and, most pervasively of all, the poetry prize and competition circuit.
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